


Lights, Camera

by biblionerd07



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Domestic, Fluff, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 13:58:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4140378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biblionerd07/pseuds/biblionerd07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hernando comes with Lito to a premiere, because they're not hiding anymore. But Lito still has that elephant in the room. Or seven elephants, as the case may be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights, Camera

**Author's Note:**

> So, I main-lined Sense8 in 12 hours and got obsessed, of course. This is some kind of future time where everything is better and Will doesn't have to be completely unconscious forever, I guess? There's no "Cluster as family" tag so team as family seemed to work well. :)

“Are you ready?” Lito asks, fingers poised on the door handle of the car. Cameras are already flashing outside, lights blinking in and out. He reaches over with his other hand and laces his fingers through Hernando’s. Hernando cranes his neck and looks out the window again.

“Are you sure?” He asks for about the hundredth time in the last hour. “Lito, are you really sure? The people love you and you’ve already had some backlash from coming out, but people are _really_ going to freak out if you show them it’s real instead of just an abstract concept of hypothetical sexuality—”

“Hernando,” Lito interrupts softly. He’s already heard this speech four times on this car ride alone, and he knows the full thing goes on for another six minutes because Hernando takes a little pit-stop to talk about mob mentality. Hernando teases him about being overdramatic, but this seems like overkill. “I don’t care if they freak out.”

“But Lito,” Hernando goes on. “Your career.”

“Hernando.” Lito smiles and brushes a hand through Hernando’s curls. “I already told you before.”

“I know, I know,” Hernando relents, resting his forehead against Lito’s. “I’m more important than your career.”

“Always,” Lito promises.

Hernando takes a deep breath. “Okay,” he says.

“But you’re ready?” Lito checks. “They might say things about you.”

Hernando arches an eyebrow and Lito gets a little distracted by it for a second. “I don’t care what they say about me.”

“I care about that,” Lito says. “Maybe tonight I’m _your_ bodyguard, right?”

Hernando laughs. “You did take down Joaquin. My big, strong action hero.”

Lito shifts a little guiltily. He didn’t take down Joaquin. Wolfgang took down Joaquin. But Hernando still doesn’t know Wolfgang exists. Every time Lito tries to tell him, he can’t think of the right words. He’s an actor, not a writer. Hernando’s the one who has a real way with words. Lito just says them.

He squeezes Hernando’s hand and opens the door. The cameras go into hyper-speed and the reporters’ questions get more furious. The fans lined up on the side start shrieking. And then Hernando follows him out, still holding his hand.

There’s no moment of silence before the storm the way it’s happened in many of Lito’s films; it overtakes them immediately. Screams and camera flashes and reporters falling over themselves to get to the pair threaten to overwhelm them. Lito knows how to keep his cool in this kind of situation, but Hernando’s eyes are pretty wide.

“Lito!” People are screaming.

“Mr. Rodriguez, over here!”

“Who is this?” Someone asks. Lito turns toward the question.

“This is Hernando,” he says proudly. He doesn’t offer any more details. He pauses for a few photos and they make their way inside the theater, and of course Hernando does his usual act of whispering the lines along with all the characters, making Lito giggle. They get a few dirty looks from Lito’s cast-mates. He feels almost high with the feeling of sitting here in public, holding Hernando’s hand, no Daniela to pretend to be his date. She’d cried a little when they left, clapping her hands together in excitement at their matching tuxes and Hernando’s bowtie, and of course she’d taken pictures.

“I’m really proud of you, Lito,” Nomi says from his right. He jumps a little.

“This was very brave,” Sun agrees.

“Are you nervous about what the reporters will say after the film?” Kala asks worriedly. Lito shrugs and nods. He can’t really say anything, not with Hernando sitting so close to him. He’d notice if Lito started talking to himself. He’s caught Lito more than once already.

“We’ll stay with you,” Capheus promises. Will and Riley are two rows ahead, and they hold up their clasped hands in solidarity. Wolfgang, in the far right corner, gives Lito a nod. Lito sends them all his gratitude.

They’ve been practicing sending emotions, for when they’re not in a good place to speak aloud, but sometimes it gets confusing, like when Sun meant to let them feel her happiness about being outside in the yard and did it too strongly so all eight of them were left giggling inexplicably for forty-five minutes.

A gun-fight erupts on screen. “I enjoy this movie,” Capheus murmurs. “I’ll have to find your other movies on the internet.”

“Oh, come on,” Lito scoffs quietly.

“Come on what?” Hernando whispers.

“Oh, I…I don’t like the way my hair looks in this scene,” Lito says quickly. Will is snickering in the back of Lito’s head and he sends him a mental-glare.

Hernando squints thoughtfully at the screen and Lito can’t fight the smile that overtakes his face as he watches Hernando’s nose wrinkle up in concentration. “I think your hair looks fine,” Hernando decides. He puts on his mock-serious face. “Very artfully mussed and masculine.”

“I’ll have to tell Gabriela in hair and makeup you approve,” Lito says.

Hernando gives him a wicked grin as on-screen Lito bends over and gives the audience an excellent view of his ass. “Make sure you tell the costume department as well.”

“You’re okay with all these strangers admiring my ass?” Lito teases.

“They can look,” Hernando shrugs. “It’s mine.”

“The words that started our complications,” Lito says, shaking his head. Hernando snorts.

“Shhh!” Lito’s co-star, Margarita, hisses from the end of the row. She gives Lito an intensely dirty look when he tries to shoot her an apologetic glance.

“Uh-oh,” Hernando breathes, and Lito has to hold his breath so he doesn’t start laughing. He’s just so _giddy_ to get Hernando’s running commentary right here at the premiere instead of tucked onto their couch all alone with the shades drawn.

Lito has to do at least one interview after the premiere, according to his contract, and he doesn’t really care who he talks to, so he goes with the woman who gets to him first.

“Where is Daniela tonight?” The reporter asks. “You two were a very cute couple.”

“Daniela’s at home,” Lito says, a little annoyed she would say that with Hernando right here. It’s not like Hernando is threatened by it, of course, because he knows the truth, but still. “And we were never a couple.”

She gulps a little and puts on a big smile. “And what did you think of the film?” She politely asks Hernando.

“Oh, I loved it,” he tells her earnestly. “I really appreciated the way the fight scenes were just outward manifestations of his inward struggles. And the question of morality in the middle with the grandfather reflects the questions we must all ask ourselves in our lives about when we will be ready to own our decisions and the consequences of them.”

The interviewer blinks a few times, mouth slightly open as she processes Hernando’s deep thoughts about a superficial action movie.

“Hernando analyses films beautifully,” Lito says proudly, smiling at him.

“So, Lito,” she says in that specific tone interviewers get when they’re about to pry into his personal life. “Hernando is your…?” She lets the question hang in the air.

Lito tenses a little against his will. This is the moment, the big reveal. Holding hands is an obvious tip-off, but it could still be ignored or refuted if he really wanted it to be. Hernando is more important than his career. He said that and he means it, a thousand times over. But it’s still a big answer he’s about to give.

“You can do it,” Riley assures him.

“You’re plenty strong enough,” Will agrees.

“Don’t let them make you hide,” Nomi admonishes. Kala gives his shoulder a squeeze and Capheus is gazing around at the cameras and screaming fans in wonder. Lito can feel Sun radiating calm and strength to him and he closes his eyes for a moment to soak it in.

“Lying doesn’t have to be what you do,” Wolfgang says softly.

Lito comes back to himself. The interviewer is waiting, eyebrows raised, because his pause has gone on too long. Hernando looks a little wary.

“Hernando is the love of my life,” Lito says simply, squeezing Hernando’s hand. “And we are not hiding it anymore.”

Hernando’s smile is like a sunrise, breaking over his face wide and slow and lighting up Lito’s whole body.

“Oh,” the interviewer breathes.

“Thank you,” Lito says, tugging at Hernando’s hand to lead him away.

“Lito!” Some fans at the gate scream. “A picture, please!”

Lito obliges them, posing in front of their groups, but Hernando keeps making faces at him and making him laugh. “You’re so terrible to me,” Lito says on the way home, mouthing it against Hernando’s neck.

“I ruined your cool guy look,” Hernando agrees unapologetically, tilting his head to give Lito better access and running his hand up Lito’s arm. “Cool guys don’t laugh, I guess.”

“You can practice at the next one,” Lito promises. Hernando huffs out a happy little chuckle that makes Lito feel like he’s going to burst.

The next morning, Daniela wakes them up by slipping away from their cuddle-pile and literally jumping on top of them. Hernando lets out an _oof_ and Lito cringes away from her sharp little elbows.

“Look at these headlines,” she sings out at them, handing over her phone.

“ _Lito Rodriguez’s new arm candy_ ,” Lito reads. “Oh, look, it calls you _smoldering_ ,” he points out, wiggling his eyebrows at Hernando.

“ _Rodriguez debuts boy-toy_ ,” Hernando reads. He rolls his eyes. “I think I’m a bit old to be a boy-toy.”

“You are my man-toy,” Lito assures him. Hernando snorts and elbows him. Daniela snatches the phone back and Hernando huffs at her.

“You’re taking too long to get to the best one,” she says, scrolling down. “Look.”

“ _Rodriguez shows off his heart-eyes_ ,” the headline reads. There’s a half-page picture of Hernando talking to the interviewer and Lito watching him, smiling. There is a helpful heart-eyes emoji next to his face for comparison. Hernando is cracking up laughing.

“Listen, listen,” Daniela commands, starting to read from the article. “Lito Rodriguez is known for being cool and aloof, giving cameras a smolder but rarely a real smile. But last night, he lit up the red carpet with the look in his eyes at his date, whom he called the love of his life. Looks like this Casanova has finally settled down.”

“Are there comments on the article?” Hernando asks.

Daniela waves a hand. “Just people wondering who the mystery man is.”

“That’s all?” Lito asks skeptically. Daniela looks a little guilty.

“Well…”

“No, it’s okay,” Lito cuts her off. “Don’t tell me about the bad ones. I don’t care.” He falls back against his pillows and watches Hernando and Daniela have a silent conversation about him with their eyes. “Don’t talk about me while I’m sitting right here,” he complains mildly.

“We’re not talking,” Hernando points out innocently. “We didn’t say a word.”

“Thick as thieves,” Lito says fondly, shaking his head. Hernando finds his hand under the blankets and gives it a squeeze.

“Well, you two had a big night last night,” Daniela says. “So I’m going to make you breakfast in bed.”

“You are?” Hernando asks incredulously. Daniela doesn’t really cook.

“Okay, fine, I’m going to _buy_ you breakfast and then bring it to you in bed,” she admits with a shrug. They both laugh at her and she throws a pillow at them on her way out the door. Neither of them say anything for a while, Lito almost falling into a doze because of Hernando’s fingers in his hair, until Hernando murmurs,

“I’m very happy we don’t have secrets anymore.”

Lito’s stomach twists with guilt. He has a secret. A big secret. A seven-person-large secret. But how is he supposed to explain it to Hernando? He’ll probably think Lito’s having a nervous breakdown. He thinks about not telling Hernando. But he needs to, and he needs to tell Dani, too, because technically they’re not completely safe, and he doesn't like keeping things from either of them. He’s trying to be braver these days. He’s just coming into it a little slowly.

“He will listen to you,” Sun tells him, appearing suddenly. “You love each other.” Lito throws all his uncertainty at her and she shrugs at him. “Make your decision. Tell him or do not. But you are not concentrating on him while you worry.”

Lito knows she’s right. He looks down at Hernando, nuzzled up against his shoulder, and he swallows hard. Sun isn’t there anymore, but he can still feel her, and all the others, too, supporting him and giving him strength. He takes a deep breath.

“Hernando, I need to tell you something,” Lito says.

Hernando looks up at him with eyes full of loving concern at his serious tone, and Lito can feel the rest of his cluster with him, like seven people cheering him on, and he feels his heart relax a little. He smiles at Hernando, and somehow he knows everything will be fine.


End file.
